Edin Dzeko is tall and physically imposing, a target man who from an early age has been described as "an English-style striker". Zvjezdan Misimovic is slow and perhaps a little rounder than most footballers, but blessed with the vision and technical excellence that places him squarely in the great tradition of Balkan playmakers. Dzeko is a Bosnian Muslim who lived in Sarajevo through the siege in 1992-96; Misimovic is a Bosnian Serb who was born and raised in Munich and played at youth level for Yugoslavia.

They are, in short, a couple odder than Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, and yet they have combined to lead Bosnia to the brink of World Cup qualification and, with Grafite adding Brazilian dazzle, they were instrumental in Wolfsburg's Bundesliga triumph last season. What they have in common is a determination to prove wrong those who underrated them early in their careers: tonight's game against Manchester United is a further opportunity to make a point.

"United have world-class players," said Misimovic, "so it will be hard. But I don't think they're at such a high level as they used to be. They're very strong when they're attacking, and watching [Wayne] Rooney and [Dimitar] Berbatov is great, and it's the same with [Nemanja] Vidic and [Rio] Ferdinand, but when you compare the defence and attack with the midfield, I can see a chance. We will attack them, because they have too much class for us to defend our goal for 90 minutes."

The defining moment of Misimovic's career arrived with his debut for Yugoslavia's Under-21 side against France in November 2002. "I came on in the 85th minute, when we were already losing 3-0," he said. "After the game, [the coach Vladimir] Petrovic told me that I was fat, slow and arrogant. That was the end of my playing for Yugoslavia. It was really disappointing, but now I don't care." And why would he when he is part of a double-act that embodies the spirit of unity that now propels the Bosnia national side?

"We played two years in the national team together, and also at Wolfsburg, so I know him and he knows me," Dzeko said. "He's a very good technical player and he's very clever, and for every striker it's important to have somebody like him behind you. He's a good passer and if you make a run he always sees it."

Dzeko also had to struggle to be taken seriously. When he joined Zeljeznicar Sarajevo as a 13-year-old, he was dismissed as "Kloc", a nickname deriving from the slang term for a lamp-post – he is now 6ft 3½in. A scout for the Czech side Teplice, though, saw potential in his rawness, and when they offered €50,000 (£45,000) for him, as one Zeljezniar director put it, "we thought we'd won the lottery".

Dzeko thrived. Perhaps the Czechs simply knew better how to use a target man, or perhaps it was just that Dzeko's development as a footballer was delayed by the circumstances in which he grew up. "I was six when the war started," he said. "It was terrible. My house was destroyed so we went to live with my grandparents. The whole family was there, maybe 15 people all staying in an apartment of about 35 square metres. It was very hard. We were stressed every day in case somebody we knew died. A lot of footballers start to play kicking a ball around in the street. For me that was impossible, but when the war finished I was much stronger, mentally."

After two seasons at Teplice, aged 21, he was sold to Wolfsburg for €4.7m. Two years later, when Milan and Arsenal made enquiries in the summer, they were told he was worth five times that. Having been referred to so often as an "English" player, Dzeko is keen to test himself against an English side. "It's a chance for me to play against some of the best defensive players in Europe, and I want to show that I can play on the big stage," he said. "I am a fan of Milan, but my big dream is to play in England."

If United are unsettled by the fat man and the lamp-post, that dream could come a step closer to reality tonight.